2011 SUPER GT : First win of the season for the SC430 at Toyota's home course, Fuji Speedway!

2011 SUPER GT : R.6 Fuji Speedway GT500 Winners : Yuji Tachikawa / Kohei Hirate, #38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 - LEXUS SC430

SHIZUOKA, Japan : September 11, 2011 - The FUJI GT 250km RACE, round 6 of the 2011 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, was held on Sept. 11 at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4.563 km ~ 55 laps). The winner in the GT500 class for the first time this season was the ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate).

The morning rain had stopped well before the race got underway exactly 14:00 and the track was dry throughout the race. The early stages of the race turned into an SC430 match race between the pole-starting DENSO SARD SC430 (Hiroaki Ishiura) and the ZENT CERUMO (Kohei Hirate) that thrilled the crowd gathered at Fuji Speedway, Toyota's home course.
In SUPER GT races, one pit stop with a driver change is mandatory. After that routine pit stop the battle between these two machines continued into the second half of the race. Running in the lead was the DENSO SARD SC430 (Takuto Iguchi) and giving chase from 2 to 3 seconds behind was the ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa). Seeing the fast pace of the GT500 rookie Iguchi, the veteran Tachikawa (winner of eleven GT500 victories) decided to run easy on his tires and wait until the final laps to make his move. With five laps remaining in the race the gap between the two machines closed rapidly. With three laps left to go, Tachikawa drew up alongside Iguchi at the first corner and passed him brilliantly coming out of the Coca Cola Corner. From there, Tachikawa raced on to the win, the first in two and a half years for both him and the team. In contrast, Iguchi had a collision with a GT300 machine on the last turn that caused him to spin out and give up 2nd place to the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R. With this, the SC430 camp was denied a 1-2 finish at their home course, Fuji Speedway.

This was Tachikawa's twelfth GT500 win. For Hirate, it was his first win in GT500 competition. For the Lexus SC430 this was the first win of the season and its twelfth overall.

2011 SUPER GT : R.6 Fuji Speedway GT300 Winners : Nobuteru Taniguchi / Taku Bamba, #4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW - BMW Z4 GT3

In the GT300 class race, the winner was the pole-starting HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Taku Bamba). For Taniguchi and Bamba, this was their second pole-to-win race of the season, following their victory at the third round in Malaysia. This was the fifth win overall for BMW in GT300 class competition.
(Spectators: 27,800)

Winner Comments

2011 SUPER GT R.6 Fuji Speedway GT-500 Podium

No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 [GT500]

Yuji Tachikawa: "I am very happy that we were able to win. Lately (2 1/2 years) we haven't had a win and it has been a tough season this year for all the SC430 teams. So, I am especially happy that we won here. After taking over from Hirate I was chasing Iguchi, and I discovered that he was faster than I expected. So, I decided to go easy on my tires and wait until late in the race to put the pressure on. I think that is what became the winning factor. After minimizing the wear on my tires for most of my stint, I started pushing hard. When the gap started to narrow I decided to go all the way and pass him. I want to thank all the people at Lexus, TRD and our team for preparing a car capable of winning in this way."

Kohei Hirate: "It has been two and a half years since I moved up to GT500, so I am very happy to finally get this first win. I didn't know how car No. 39 with its Michelin tires would start the race, so I was mostly watching them during the early stages of the race. Since their tires began to lose performance at about the same time as mine, I realized that they didn't have the kind of advantage people have been talking about lately. I felt that my role was to bring the machine back in good position for Tachikawa-san to race a good second half."

2011 SUPER GT R.6 Fuji Speedway GT-300 Podium

No. 4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW [GT300]

Nobuteru Taniguchi: "I am very relieved that we won, and in equal parts I am extremely happy about this win. It was also a great result because (our title race rival) car No. 11 no-pointed this time. The BMW Z4 does very well here at Fuji Speedway, so I was determined for us to make a podium finish and get 10 points or more from this race. In yesterday's qualifying things felt good from the start and the tire that Yokohama prepared for us matched the machine's performance very well. That gave us good performance not only on the straights, where we are always strong, but also on the turns. Once I started racing the car felt good, so I extended my stint in order to reduce the risks as much as possible before turning it over to Bamba. He also did a very good job for us out there. He next round is at Autopolis, where the Z4 doesn't do as well, but we want to keep our ranking lead so that we can go into the final round at Motegi and battle it out for the title (with car No. 11)."

Taku Bamba: "I am very happy. I am especially happy because our last win was in Malaysia and we haven't been able to win in front of our home fans until now. For this reason I am both relieved and happy. (During the first half) Taniguchi-san's tires performed well so it was decided that he would extend his stint to the 35th lap. For that reason, I was determined to run my shorter stint without giving up any of the margin of lead I had received. Now that we lead the ranking, we will be the ones the other teams will be chasing. I want to do my part to help us go into the final round still in the lead and win the championship title there."

2011 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 6 FUJI GT 250km RACE - GT 500 Race result

Po	No	Machine	Drivers	Time/Diff	Lap	Best lap	Tire	WH
1	38	ZENT CERUMO SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG	Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate	1:30'47.525	55	1'36.730	BS	30
2	12	CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R NISSAN GT-R R35 / VRH34B	Tsugio Matsuda J.P.L.de Oliveira	0'25.468	55	1'36.958	BS	62
3	17	KEIHIN HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG	Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi	0'25.573	55	1'36.986	BS	60
4	1	Weider HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG	Takashi Kogure Loic Duval	0'31.496	55	1'37.108	BS	88
5	100	RAYBRIG HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG	Takuya Izawa Naoki Yamamoto	0'50.303	55	1'37.511	BS	46
6	23	MOTUL AUTECH GT-R NISSAN GT-R R35 / VRH34B	Satoshi Motoyama Benoit Treluyer	0'54.022	55	1'37.356	BS	68
7	46	S Road MOLA GT-R NISSAN GT-R R35 / VRH34B	Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli	1'01.088	55	1'36.997	MI	100
8	39	DENSO SARD SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG	Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi	1'05.593	55	1'36.513	MI	52
9	35	D'STATION KeePer SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG	Juichi Wakisaka Andre Couto	1'11.131	55	1'37.252	BS	10
10	6	ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG	Daisuke Ito Kazuya Oshima	1'12.640	55	1'37.087	BS	54
11	24	ADVAN KONDO GT-R NISSAN GT-R R35 / VRH34B	Hironobu Yasuda Bjorn Wirdheim	1'12.696	55	1'37.351	YH	46
12	32	EPSON HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG	Ryo Michigami Yuhki Nakayama	1'14.997	55	1'37.446	DL	24
13	19	WedsSport ADVAN SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG	Tatsuya Kataoka Seiji Ara	1'34.041	55	1'37.563	YH	28
14	8	ARTA HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG	Hideki Mutoh Takashi Kobayashi	4Laps	51	1'37.147	BS	14
15	36	PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG	Andre Lotterer Kazuki Nakajima	7Laps	48	1'37.225	BS	56

2011 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 6 FUJI GT 250km RACE - GT 300 Race result

Po	No	Machine	Drivers	Time/Diff	Lap	Best lap	Tire	WH
1	4	HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW BMW Z4 GT3 / P65B44	Nobuteru Taniguchi Taku Bamba	1:31'53.180	51	1'44.986	YH	90
2	14	SG CHANGI IS350 LEXUS IS350 / RV8J	Ryo Orime Alexandre Imperatori	0'19.764	51	1'45.967	YH	46
3	2	EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 Apple Shiden Shiden MC/RT-16 / 1UZ-FE	Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Katoh	0'25.689	51	1'45.637	YH	20
4	88	JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Gallardo RG-3 / 07L1	Hiroyuki Iiri Yuhi Sekiguchi	0'25.990	51	1'45.836	YH	24
5	25	ZENT Porsche RSR PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSR / M97/81	Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya	0'27.926	51	1'46.165	YH	42
6	62	R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 SUBARU LEGACY B4 / EJ20	Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki	0'28.230	51	1'45.475	YH	52
7	27	PACIFIC NAC IKAMUSUME Ferrari Ferrari F430 / F136GT	Yutaka Yamagishi Hideki Yamauchi	0'30.400	51	1'46.013	YH	34
8	86	JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Gallardo RG-3 / 07L1	Yuya Sakamoto Takayuki Aoki	1Lap	50	1'46.273	YH	4
9	66	triple a Vantage GT2 Aston Martin V8 Vantage / V8	Hiroki Yoshimoto Kazuki Hoshino	1Lap	50	1'45.573	YH	46
10	15	ART TASTE GT3R PORSCHE 911 GT3 R MY2011 / M97/79	Yasuhiro Shimizu Tim Bergmeister	1Lap	50	1'45.568	HK
11	33	HANKOOK PORSCHE PORSCHE 911 GT3 R MY2010 / M97/79	Masami Kageyama Tomonobu Fujii	1Lap	50	1'45.994	HK	86
12	43	ARTA Garaiya ARTA Garaiya / VQ35DE	Shinichi Takagi Kosuke Matsuura	1Lap	50	1'46.145	BS	44
13	31	HASEPRO MA IWASAKI apr COROLLA TOYOTA COROLLA Axio / 2GR-FSE	Koki Saga Yuki Iwasaki	1Lap	50	1'46.432	YH	16
14	74	COROLLA Axio apr GT TOYOTA COROLLA Axio / 2GR-FSE	Morio Nitta Yuji Kunimoto	1Lap	50	1'46.076	YH	66
15	26	Verity TAISAN Porsche PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS / M96/77	Hideshi Matsuda Kyosuke Mineo	1Lap	50	1'45.690	YH
16	7	EVANGELION RT PRODUCTION MODEL-02 DIRECTION PORSCHE 911 GT3 R MY2011 / M97/79	Carlo Van Dam Akira Mizutani	1Lap	50	1'46.179	YH
17	5	Mach GoGoGo Syaken RD320R VEMAC 320R / M97/77	Tetsuji Tamanaka Haruki Kurosawa	2Laps	49	1'46.708	YH	4
18	10	Rn-sports JIMGAINER F430 Ferrari F430 / F136GT	Masayuki Ueda Masataka Kawaguchi	2Laps	49	1'46.889	YH
19	87	RIRE Lamborghini RG-3 Gallardo RG-3 / 07L1	Atsushi Yogo Manabu Orido	2Laps	49	1'46.967	YH	52
20	69	ThunderAsia MT900M Mosler MT900M / XV	Melvin Choo Hiroki Yoshida	2Laps	49	1'47.356	YH
21	41	NetMove TAISAN Ferrari Ferrari F430 GT / F136GT	Shinichi Yamaji Hiroshi Koizumi	7Laps	44	1'46.562	YH	8
22	11	JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458 Ferrari 458 GTC / F142GT2	Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka	9Laps	42	1'46.322	DL	100
Classified (GT300: 44 Laps)
	34	HARUHIRACING HANKOOK PORSCHE PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSR / M97/81	Hiroshi Takamori Michael Kim	31Lap	20	1'48.680	HK	2

2011 SUPER GT - GT-500 : Drivers' Championship Standing

Po	No	Drivers	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	1st Diff	WH
1	46	Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli	5	1	15	20	15	4			60	-	60
2	1	Takashi Kogure Loic Duval	4		20		20	8			52	-8	52
3	12	Tsugio Matsuda Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira	20				11	15			46	-14	46
4	17	Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi	11	3	11	5		11			41	-19	41
5	23	Satoshi Motoyama Benoit Treluyer	6	20			8	5			39	-21	39
6	38	Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate	3	6	6			20			35	-25	35
7	39	Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi		5		15	6	3			29	-31	29
8	100	Takuya Izawa Naoki Yamamoto	15		4	4		6			29	-31	29
9	6	Daisuke Ito Kazuya Oshima		15	3	6	3	1			28	-32	28
10	36	Andre Lotterer Kazuki Nakajima	8	8	5	2	5				28	-32	28
11	24	Hironobu Yasuda Bjorn Wirdheim	2	4	8	8	1				23	-37	23
12	19	Tatsuya Kataoka Seiji Ara		11		3					14	-46	14
13	32	Ryo Michigami Yuhki Nakayama	1			11					12	-48	12
14	35	Juichi Wakisaka Andre Couto			1		4	2			7	-53	7
15	8	Hideki Mutoh Takashi Kobayashi		2	2	1	2				7	-53	7

2011 SUPER GT - GT-300 : Drivers' Championship Standing

Po	No	Drivers	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	1st Diff	WH
1	4	Nobuteru Taniguchi Taku Bamba	8	6	20	5	6	20			65	-	65
2	11	Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka	15	15	15	4	8				57	-8	57
3	33	Masami Kageyama Tomonobu Fujii		20	2	6	15				43	-22	43
4	14	Ryo Orime				20	3	15			38	-27	38
5	14	Alexandre Imperatori			-	20	3	15			38	-27	38
6	74	Morio Nitta Yuji Kunimoto	5	4	5	15	4				33	-32	33
7	62	Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki	3		3		20	5			31	-34	31
8	25	Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya		11		8	2	6			27	-38	27
9	87	Atsushi Yogo Manabu Orido	11		4		11				26	-39	26
10	66	Hiroki Yoshimoto Kazuki Hoshino	20			3		2			25	-40	25
11	43	Shinichi Takagi Kosuke Matsuura		5	6	11					22	-43	22
12	27	Yutaka Yamagishi Hideki Yamauchi	6		11			4			21	-44	21
13	2	Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Katoh	4		1		5	11			21	-44	21
14	88	Hiroyuki Iiri Yuhi Sekiguchi		3	8	1		8			20	-45	20
15	31	Koki Saga Yuki Iwasaki		8							8	-57	8
16	86	Yuya Sakamoto Takayuki Aoki	1				1	3			5	-60	5
17	41	Shinichi Yamaji Hiroshi Koizumi	2	2	-						4	-61	8
18	5	Haruki Kurosawa		-		2					2	-63	4
19	5	Katsuhiko Tsutsui	-	-	-	2	-	-			2	-63	4
20	34	Hiroshi Takamori Michael Kim		1	-	-					1	-64	2
21	15	Yasuhiro Shimizu Tim Bergmeister	-	-	-	-		1			1	-64	2

2011 SUPER GT - GT-500 : Teams' Championship Standing

Po	No	Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	1st Diff	WH
1	46	MOLA	8	3	18	23	18	7			77	-	60
2	1	Weider Honda Racing	7	1	23		23	11			65	-12	52
3	12	TEAM IMPUL	23	1	2	1	14	18			59	-18	46
4	23	NISMO	9	23	3	2	11	8			56	-21	39
5	17	KEIHIN REAL RACING	14	5	14	8	1	14			56	-21	41
6	38	LEXUS TEAM ZENT CERUMO	6	9	9	2	1	23			50	-27	35
7	39	LEXUS TEAM SARD	2	8	3	18	9	6			46	-31	29
8	6	LEXUS TEAM LeMans ENEOS	3	18	6	9	6	4			46	-31	28
9	100	TEAM KUNIMITSU	18	2	7	7		9			43	-34	29
10	36	LEXUS TEAM PETRONAS TOM'S	11	11	8	4	8	1			43	-34	28
11	24	KONDO RACING	5	6	11	11	2	3			38	-39	23
12	19	LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH	1	14	3	5	1	3			27	-50	14
13	32	NAKAJIMA RACING	4	1	3	14	1	3			26	-51	12
14	8	AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI	3	4	5	3	5	1			21	-56	7
15	35	LEXUS TEAM KRAFT	2	2	4		7	5			20	-57	7

2011 SUPER GT - GT-300 : Teams' Championship Standing

Po	No	Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	1st Diff	WH
1	4	GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO	11	9	23	8	9	23			83	-	65
2	11	JIMGAINER	18	18	18	7	11	1			73	-10	57
3	33	HANKOOK KTR	3	23	5	9	18	3			61	-22	43
4	14	Team SG CHANGI	3	1		23	6	18			51	-32	38
5	74	apr	8	7	8	18	7	3			51	-32	33
6	62	R&D SPORT	6	1	6		23	8			44	-39	31
7	25	SAMURAI Team TSUCHIYA		14		11	5	9			39	-44	27
8	87	JLOC	14	1	7	1	14	1			38	-45	26
9	43	AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI	1	8	9	14	1	3			36	-47	22
10	66	A speed	23			6	1	5			35	-48	25
11	27	LMP MOTORSPORT	9	3	14		1	7			34	-49	21
12	2	Cars Tokai Dream28	7		4	1	8	14			34	-49	21
13	88	JLOC		6	11	4	1	11			33	-50	20
14	31	apr	3	11	3		1	3			21	-62	8
15	86	JLOC	4		3	1	2	6			16	-67	5
16	41	Team TAISAN CINECITTA	5	5	-	3	1	1			15	-68	8
17	26	Team TAISAN CINECITTA	3	1	3	3	1	3			14	-69
18	5	TEAM MACH	1	-	3	5		1			10	-73	4
19	69	ThunderAsia Racing	1	1	3		1	1			7	-76
20	22	R'Qs MOTORSPORTS	3	1	1		1	-			6	-77
21	34	HANKOOK KTR	1	4	-						5	-78	2
22	15	TEAM ART TASTE	-	-	-	-	1	4			5	-78	2
23	7	DIRECTION RACING	-	-	-	1		3			4	-79
24	360	TOMEI SPORTS	1	1	-		-	-			2	-81
25	10	JIMGAINER	-	-	-	-	-	1			1	-82